George Russell hopes Mercedes will take more “risks” in an effort to battle Ferrari and Red Bull during the early part of the season.
The eight-time reigning Constructors’ champions have started the 2022 Formula 1 season off the pace as porpoising issues leave them unable to extract the full potential from the W13.
But despite some caution from the drivers on a timeframe to fix the problem, technical director James Allison believes a solution that doesn’t have the side effect of restricting performance could take just “two or three races”.
That would be reassuring to Russell and teammate Lewis Hamilton, particularly as the bouncing effect on the straights is seen as the main hurdle for Mercedes to overcome.
“We are quite draggy, but this porpoising we’re experiencing down the straight is going to slow you down because we’re smashing into the ground rather than going forward,” George said.
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“The lap time deficit we have is probably 50 per cent [on the] straights, 50 per cent corners.
“It offers a glimmer of hope; we all believe we can solve the issue, but we truly just don’t know how long it’ll take, it might be next weekend or might not be until the summer break.
“We know if we unlock the performance it’s going to benefit everything, it’ll help tyres, help us under braking, it will give us more grip,” he added.
“We really hope we can find a solution as soon as possible as we just know that’ll answer a lot of our issues, but it is easier said than done.”
In the meantime, Russell hopes Mercedes will try alternative approaches to the teams ahead in an effort to keep up.
“For me personally, it feels a similar position to what I found myself in in the previous years,” he said comparing the situation to that he faced at Williams.
“The competitors ahead of us are so far in front and we do have a bit of a buffer behind that we can almost afford to take a few more risks to try and make up that gap.
“So we’re in a bit of an intriguing spot right now that we can try a few things, but ultimately, there is more to come from all of us – myself, Lewis, the whole team – and we just need to keep on working.”